We’re not saying we support executing villains, but an astronomer’s idea of launching them into the Sun certainly sparks curiosity. Michael JI Brown, an associate professor of astronomy at Monash University, offers an interesting take on this concept.
First, let’s consider the rocket. To break free from Earth’s gravity, it needs to travel incredibly fast—about 11 kilometers per second, or over 25,000 miles per hour. Hypothetically, if we point a rocket directly at the Sun, would it reach its target? Not quite.
As Brown humorously points out in his piece for The Conversation, the result is “disappointing.” The rocket would miss the Sun by nearly 100 million kilometers! That’s because Earth travels around the Sun at approximately 30 kilometers per second, which alters the rocket’s path.
When the rocket leaves Earth, it is moving faster around the Sun than toward it. At first, it may seem to get closer, but gravity pulls it into an elliptical orbit that ultimately misses the Sun altogether. To actually send the rocket toward the Sun, we would need to counteract Earth’s orbit, a challenging feat. The rocket would have to travel at 32 kilometers per second in the opposite direction of Earth’s rotation.
Once it breaks free from Earth, the craft would enter a region where the Sun’s gravity could pull it in. This journey is about 150 million kilometers long, taking around 10 weeks. That gives our hypothetical villain plenty of time to contemplate their misdeeds before their fiery fate.
Currently, achieving such a goal is impractical. NASA’s fastest spacecraft, New Horizons, reached a top speed of 16.26 kilometers per second—still not enough to execute our plan. However, Brown suggests a clever workaround: using gravity assists from other planets, like Jupiter, could boost our rocket’s speed. New Horizons did exactly this, gaining speed by 14,000 kilometers per hour during its flyby of Jupiter, which helped it reach Pluto more quickly.
Imagine using this technique to guide our villain on a wild journey through the solar system, getting closer and closer to the Sun with each planetary encounter.
This whimsical idea highlights our curiosity about the universe, but it also raises profound questions about justice and morality. As we explore the cosmos, we must consider not just the rocket science, but the human aspects of such thoughts. It’s a reminder of how science and ethics can intersect in the most unexpected ways.
For more on how we engage with the universe, check out recent findings from NASA’s Parker Solar Probe, which is unearthing mysteries about the Sun’s atmosphere and behavior.
